Wednesday, December 15, 2010

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S !!!!!!****** AND TO ALL, A GOOD NITE '10

HEY, I DON'T CARE WHAT RELIGION YOU ARE OR IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE. MERRY CHRISTMAS. TO ALL OF MY JEWISH FRIENDS ACROSS THIS GREAT COUNTRY OF OURS, I HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD HANUKKAH.

DECEMBER 25, 2010 COINCIDES WITH WHAT ALL OF OUR CALENDARS SAY, THE DATE SINCE CHRIST. PLEASE FORGIVE ME LOCAL ATHEISTS, SERIOUSLY. THOUGH, I HAVE TO ADMIT, EVERY TIME YOU WOULD ASK ME TO PROVE TO YOU THERE IS A GOD EVERY TIME I WOULD ASK YOU TO PROVE TO ME THERE WASN'T. HOW LONG DO YOU THINK THAT DEBATE WOULD LAST? CAN YOU IMAGINE? (GIGGLE, GIGGLE, I'm being facetious, I should say). HO! HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS! GOD BLESS US ALL.

NEXT, MORE CLOSER TO HOME DID YOU READ WHERE THE NEW ALBANY CITY'S BUDGET WILL CONTINUE TO HEMMORAGE BECAUSE THAT LITTLE OLD PAST DUE LOAN UNDER OVERTON'S ADMINISTRATION (HOW LONG) JUST WON'T GO AWAY. I HAVE TO ADMIT, I AM LAUGHING OUT LOUD. YOU MAY JUST NEED TO KNOW THE HISTORY AS TO WHY I AM LAUGHING, OUT LOUD.

DID YOU NOTICE THE LOCAL TWITTER BUZZ CONCERNING PRICE? IF THERE ARE THREE (3) PEOPLE RUNNING, INCLUDING PRICE, HE WOULD WIN. DO YOU THINK THIS FACT MAY TELL YOU SOMETHING? MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, THE NOT SO RICH; NOT IN BUSINESS; BARELY MAKING IT BY INDIVIDUALS APPROVE OF PRICE VOTING NO ON THE FINANCIAL ISSUES. SURE, YOU MAY HAVE A BUR UP YOUR HINDSIDE BECAUSE OF OTHER VOTES AND BECAUSE PRICE IS A REALLY EASY TARGET FOR THE PEN, BUT, DOESN'T REALITY USUALLY BITE? DOES THIS FACT TELL SOME HOW A CERTAIN GROUP OF VOTERS THINK? THE VOTER THINKING THIS WAY ARE PAYING THE BILLS THAT KILL, i.e., AS IN MELLANCAMP'S SONG.

THE BRIDGE TOLL OR TOLLS OR NOT IS AN ISSUE (NOT NEEDED NOW) THAT BITES YOU IN THE REAR END. AS A LABOR SUPPORTER I CRINGED WHEN THE UNION(S) NEEDING THE JOBS SEEM TO BECOME MORE OF AN ISSUE THAN THE EXTRA (AT LEAST) $60.00 PER MONTH WE ARE STARTING TO BUDGET FOR.

I HATE THE NEW BICYCLE LANES ON CHARLESTOWN ROAD. THE LANE GOES OUT CHARLESTOWN LANE SO FAR AND THEN ENDS. THE LANE COMES IN CHARLESTOWN ROAD AND THEN ENDS. THE LANES DO NOT JOIN UP NOR ARE THEY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROAD. ONE BICYCLE LANE ENDS IN A TURN LANE ONTO SILVER. WHO THE HEY AND WHAT THE HEY? AS OF TODAY I HAVE YET TO SEE ANYONE, ON ANY STREET, IN A BICYCLE LANE. HAVE YOU? YOU DO KNOW THEY PLAN TO PUT THEM ON SLATE RUN ROAD, DON'T YOU? FORGET TRAFFIC MAY TRAVEL TOO FAST (VIOLATION OF SPEED LIMIT) BICYCLE LANES MAY (MAY) SLOW TRAFFIC DOWN. IS IT WRONG FOR ME TO THINK WHAT THE HEY?

DID YOU SEE ROAD UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY AND CITY DURING OUR BAD WEATHER THE OTHER NIGHT VIA FACEBOOK? VERY INTERESTING. GO AWAY OLD MAN WEATHER. WE ARE DONE WITH YOU. EVERYONE SAID THIS WOULD BE A WARM WINTER AS OF LAST YEAR; BUT THEN SOME PEOPLE SAID I MUST NOT HAVE READ THE FARMER'S ALMANAC FOR THIS YEAR. HAD TO ADMIT NO, I HAVE NOT. DAGGONE IT.

VICIOUS LITTLE CIRCLE CONCERNING THE MONEY OWED TO FOX AND COTNER (& THE OTHER WHO'S NAME I FORGET) ABOUT THE SEWER MONEY GEORGETOWN OWED DON'T YOU THINK?

THEY SUED IN THE NAME OF THE SEWER BOARD IN ORDER TO PROVE GEORGETOWN OWED US X AMOUNT OF $$$$$ (DOLLARS) AND WON. SOMEONE (WHO?) DECLARED GEORGETOWN WOULD JUST GET OFF OF NEW ALBANY'S SEWERS (EVEN THOUGH THEY ONLY SEND LIQUIDS) AND BUILD THEIR OWN PLANT (WHICH WILL HANDLE ONLY LIQUIDS FOR THE GEORGETOWN AREA) AND IT WOULD BE IN EVERYONE'S BEST INTEREST NEW ALBANY NOT COLLECT THE OLDDDLLLDDD PAST DUE MONEY (SCREW NEW ALBANY SEWER PAYERS). YES, WE OWE THE MONEY. YES, WE SHOULD MAKE THE SEWER BOARD PAY IT.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT NEW YEAR. 2011 WILL PROBABLY CONTAIN EVEN MORE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENINGS OR EVENTS, BUT IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD.

56 comments:

"AS OF TODAY I HAVE YET TO SEE ANYONE, ON ANY STREET, IN A BICYCLE LANE."

I live on Spring Street, and constantly see bicycles on the westbound bike lane (including my own).

My personal objection is the bike lane running eastbound the wrong direction on one-way Spring Street. Not very many of those Price supporters seem to understand traffic laws, hey what, the hey what, not.

But that's a simple fix: Just make the street two ways for everyone, and if it or any other measure slows traffic -- good.

I see bicycles on Spring all the time in decent weather. Anyone who says they haven't probably doesn't spend any time whatsoever in the downtown area...hell, they may even be boycotting downtown businesses.

I spend all my time in downtown New Albany and only see the mentally disabled (who get checks) on the sidewalks. I will still take issue who is designing the darn things, especially on Charlestown Road with the one bike lane ending in a turn lane.

Amen 12:41, at least Denhart has a good job, new car, travels to Europe twice a year and is a homeowner. You never hear or them asking for a free ride. How dare the progressives attack her and Citizens For Accountability.

I don't measure a person by the age of their car, how many trips to Europe they take or if they are a homeowner or not. I judge people by whether they can sit through an entire city council meeting without taking a smoke break.

I don't judge people by what they have or where they go either. If a person is able to tavel, I say good for them. Maybe someday I will see Europe before I die.

Vicki works hard for the things she has and the places she goes. She also doesn't have kids or grandkids. Makes a big difference. Would I trade places with a person with no kids or grandkids? Never. But that's just me.

I do however "judge" people by how they treat others. Dont't know about the rest of you but my parents brought me up to believe in the "Golden Rule".

Sixty Minutes has a special tonight about munical bonds defaulting; perhaps millions of them throughout the country.

The lack of transparency and current documents from the states that were studied are dated before the big financial free for all and we will ALL find out before the next 12 months where even New Albany bond situation will come to light.

Standards & Poor and Moody are trying to pooh pooh it but the experts think this could take the stock market down to a new low and cause crisis from city to county to state level. And, no guarantee Washington will do anymore bailouts for states.

When the States tighten their budgets (I think there was an article in the CJ today about Indiana's budget) the citys and counties in Indiana (and all other states) will have a lot less money coming in from the state.

I feel the down fall of Indiana's pension plan; severe budget woes; news things will become more worse (if that's possible) next year are the reasons some taxpayers want the current administration to make the cuts that ARE necessary.

The cuts that need to be made are across the board in every facet of New Albany. Realilty is here, for the citizens. We wish the local governments would realize this, too.

"Shirley's blog has gone to h@ll in a hand basket. Thanks Kitchen Table for providing a place where the voices of All people can really be heard".

I initiated comment moderation because someone had written absolutely FILTHY comments about a lady in the city-county building. I have not seen that type of perversity on this blog. But if it were posted here I'm sure the blog administrator would take immediate action.

I do allow all voices to be heard but I will not tolerate that sort of comments nor would anyone else.

You must be the one who wrote that slime. If you did not please accept my apology.

Whoever did write that is a truly sick individual and in great need of help.

Shirley is a weak link. She is now under the control of Baylor, Nash and the other cronies. The comments she makes herself are questionable. Implying that Vicki can only afford things because she has no kids or grandchildren. Then accuses 5:06 of writing the slime on her blog. Wonder if she ever gave it a thought that it was one of her cronies who posted it so they could take control and attempt to force her to prohibit annonymous post. Doesnt matter anymore. Clearly shows that she will cave in to her cronies. I'm sure this is how she would be if elected.

Thanks Kitchen Table in allowing all opinions to be heard, even if they disagree with you. Wonder what passive insults she will have to say towards this post or by her cronies?

If England told Benedetti he had already paid the police and fire and the legislation did not pass, what the hey? Isn't that called illegal or something? You write a check without the money in the account? I need my money to work for me the way the City's works for them; then again, maybe not.

Merry Christmas to all my fellow anonymous bloggers. May your days be filled with boycotting downtown and drinking Busch light. It has been a pleasure discussing New Albany as a hole and all the corruption taking place.

This blog has really helped my family and I really help us focus on what is going on around our kitchen table.

My Christmas Wish list (in no particular order):

*Englad will not be re-elected*Steve Price will continue his hard work for the City*Vicki can be blessed with more trips *For everyone to experience the joys of a Corvette*No annexation*Coffee will strike as a cooperhead*For accountability*For New Albany to return to what it should be

Merry Christmas to all my fellow anonymous bloggers. May your days be filled with boycotting downtown and drinking Busch light. It has been a pleasure discussing New Albany as a hole and all the corruption taking place.

This blog has really helped my family and I really help us focus on what is going on around our kitchen table.

My Christmas Wish list (in no particular order):

*Englad will not be re-elected*Steve Price will continue his hard work for the City*Vicki can be blessed with more trips *For everyone to experience the joys of a Corvette*No annexation*Coffee will strike as a cooperhead*For accountability*For New Albany to return to what it should be

We have gritted our teeth and put up with Mayor England's lies and mismanagement of our money, Carl Malysz dumb ideas, along with him trying to TIF our entire city and Shane Gibson's bad advice and him being paid for what he thinks he's worth.

We held our heads down in shame when our Mayor took over storm water utility, annexed Charlestown Road and in house billing.

We have learned not to ask where the TAXPAYERS money goes, because they won't tell us the truth.

Since WE have been so good Santa, WE want...

A toilet that flushes

A local newspaper that prints the truth instead of what the mayor wants and we feel Santa our local newspaper should keep their opinions to themselves instead of playing politics.

A sump pump for OUR basement to keep the raw sewage from mounting up and having our homes condemned

A fire hydrant that works ...

A new calculator for our controller so she can find our m$ney

We want sewer lift stations with alarm, vinyl sewer pipes to replace the old clay ones

We want a time clock for the mayor because he's never there

Santa can you PLEASE find England, Malysz and Gibson a real job at the North Pole?

We want to be New Albany Police Officers so WE can have a shiny new car with "free gas" to drive everywhere - but wait Santa, instead of being police officers we think we might want to be "mayor" so we don't "have to work" drink before noon and still make $75,000 + a year!

And there's more Santa,

We want a Council that doesn't cut deals, put the Lords Prayer back in our council meetings, can read a green bar and will give us more than 5 minutes to state our complaint.

We want our council to have more people like the "gang of four" - who cared about us taxpayers.

We want a Street Department that cleans up our alley's instead of Neighborhood Associations.

And Santa, we want a different mayor than England in 2012. One who will say what they mean and mean what they say! One who will be there and not pay $93,000 for a stand in.

We want a mayor who fixes problems instead of creating problems.

We want a mayor who can be compassionate for us taxpayers.

We want a mayor who won't continue to commit malfeasance, or ask us to turn off our cable so we can pay our sewer bill

Santa, we know our list is long after all we pay a lot in taxes and don't get what we pay for, but we deserve all the nice perks that the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the Police Dept. get.

Santa can you please explain to some people that you don't need to take a bond out to pave streets, or turn one way to two way, or to hire more police and fireman by borrowing money we cannot afford to pay back.

And Santa, we are sorry we could not leave your favorite OREO cookies this year, thanks to Mayor England the only thing we can afford is a peanut butter sandwiches.

Great post on Voices of the People. Shirley Baird challenged to end her political rhetoric.

Repeated without permission:

That's just it, Shirley, you haven't contacted Todd Young's office. My question to you is, why not? Is it that the only Congressman that can be YOUR Congressman MUST be a Democrat?

I ask this not to be adversarial, but to challenge you.

For example, I, a Republican, have contacted Baron Hill's office many times, always in the spirit of public service. I have requested information, asked him challenging questions, requested that he vote for or against this bill or that...in short, I considered him my representative in Congress and treated him with the respect accorded to him due to his position in office.

This polarizing attitude that I hear and read really needs to stop. Why can't some of our Democrats help lead the charge in bringing the local political scene out of it's paralyzed state and into a new world where we can move past this Democrat/Republican thing.

This is why, frankly, I've always admired such public servants as Lee Hamilton and Frank O'Bannon. They transcend party.

Bring this attitude to today's public official. As far as I'm concerned, the jury's still out on Todd Young and Ron Grooms, but how about State Representative Ed Clere? Here's a young man who transcends party, yet you dismiss him out of hand and even seem angry that he won.

Please remember that ANYONE who serves the public must bear all the pressures of office, whether it be the City Clerk or the President of the United States. I have long held to the notion that being helpful is better than being hurtful. Your blog can help with this, for you can either have this be the "Democrats Haven Blog" or the "We Serve the People Blog."

I responed to this comment on my blog by asking that I not be judged. Perhaps that was a little hasty on my part. As an administrator of a blog I do put myself out there to be judged. Since I'm always expressing my opinion and asking others to do the same I have no reason to feel that I should not be judged.

I named the blog the Voice of the People with the understanding that the people would have a voice. I promise to be more open in the future, and even though I do write about political topics I will try harder to make my blog a bi-partisan forum.

You are right to do so, Shirley. I like that you cut out the bad language and that you respond with such grace.

Having said that, I agree with the writer (4:43)that a bi-partisan--maybe even a NON-partisan forum is in order.

That writer is right about Ed Clere. He really is the best of the best. I happen to be on the inside about what Gibson pockets and does (and doesn't) do. In addition, Democrats who are truthful with themselves know that the Indiana Democratic Party spent a good million $$$$ trying to unseat Clere. They crossed the line as far as nastiness. THEY attacked him. Those few mailers the Republicans sent out were wimpy and didn't harm Gibson at all. The attack they launched against Clere was calculated and completely false, but it was damaging. I'm ashamed to be a Democrat when I think of it.

We have Democrats and, gulp, Republicans in office. It sure would show our ability to rise above the cursing and club mentality if we just admit it and go on. And, the good Republicans, like Clere, the ones who truly "transcend party" are to be embraced every bit as so many Republicans embraced Lee Hamilton (gosh, I miss him!).

I'm not speaking to you, Shirley, specifically, but to the people who write some of the most scathing comments on these blogs. However, Shirley, I applaud the Voice of the People blog and this Kitchen Table blog too. It's great to have a place to say what we really think.

Thanks to you who host these blogs, may this be the year we all start to move forward instead of "at" one another, and Happy New Year to you all!

7:22 Excuse me while I put my two cents worth in. But, in my opinion Freedom Of Speech is the real Voice of New Albany, Shirley. I have found very few post that I don't agree with but over all they have the real pulse of New Albany.You Shirley, sit too much on the fence. NAC is just too radical for me. He makes things to personal.

I just opened my newspaper and see where we will forgive $450,000. I have a serious problem with this. We not only forgive but we are also stuck with attorney fees of $350,000. Pray tell where are we going to find this money?

I was just sent to check out this blog and, after all my reading, I can see that the people of New Albany DO have a lot of things to say!

I'll add my 2 cents:

It took me awhile to figure out what FOS is, but now that I did, I agree that they're on to some things that I know are going on downtown. I've been silent for a long time because I haven't really known how I could be of help, but I'm getting tired of me and my co-workers being afraid to speak out.

This blog looks great too! And I checked out the Voice of the People. I hadn't ANY idea these blogs were out there.

Shirley, who wrote about not being judged did a very good thing in explaining herself. I appreciate open and honest discussion.

As for Ed Clere, I want to tell you that Ed Clere is the most decent, honest, caring man that comes into my office. He was that way before he was elected and he's still that way. So, I'm glad to see some bi-partisanship coming. I've been a firm Democrat my whole life and I don't intend to change that. But I'm SO glad he got elected the first time and then re-elected. Ed Clere is the one bright spot in an otherwise dreary bunch of public officials.

I thought it was weird that people kept trying to "avenge Cochran." The other part about this was that it was pretty bad when I heard Shane Gibson say several times that the Democrats wanted their "rightful seat back."

That made me ask Ed one day if he was working hard to hold on to his rightful seat. He said, "This is not my rightful seat. It's nobody's rightful seat except the PEOPLE."

On top of that, I remember hearing a lot of talk about Ed closing schools, a ridiculous accusation if I ever heard one. Yet they charged him with it over and over and over.

Shane Gibson said that he approved every one of those flyers that went out against Ed Clere and that he had stopped a really bad one from going out after his friends started to tell him (Gibson) that this was going way too far. That right there told me all I needed to know about Shane Gibson (although I'm sorry to say that I know more about this guy some of us call Eddie Haskell).

I'm telling you all this because I want to demonstrate that there are some Democrats who ARE bi-partisan. Some of us see what IS, not what we wish were the case because we're aligned with a certain group of people.

I used to vote straight Democrat all the time, but no more. I voted for one Republican in 2008 for the first time. Ed Clere. And I don't regret it one bit.

This year, I voted for Ed Clere and Todd Young because I felt that Baron Hill needed to be removed. I don't know enough about Todd Young, but if he does his job well, even when I disagree with him, I'll vote for him again. If not, then he's out too.

I did not vote for Ron Grooms because I overheard him say he wanted to go up to Butler games. That didn't convince me he was the man for the job and I'm very sorry Chuck Freiberger didn't win.

I hope Chuck will run again. He'd be excellent at the job. If he doesn't, I think the Democrats ought to look for someone as good as Chuck to run against Ron Grooms next time.

It's time to get rid of Doug England. I totally agree with FOS that he and Carl and Shane need to go. Shouldn't ever have been in public office and I can't go into details about that. If Doug England goes, things may not be perfect, but it'll break up a money-grubbing group, to say the least. If I could say what I know, then certain people would be out of office so fast it would make your head spin.

This took me 2 hours to write. I've used spell check on it. I'm sending it on.

Great blog, Kitchen Table! Reading your blog is a great way to start out the new year!

Nice message, 11:41. It's funny. I agree with all of it. I'm a Democrat and got to vote for the first time in 2008. Anyway, I see that you put down about voting for other people from other parties and I did that too and I also think it's better that you do it that way because if you always vote for only one party then you're never going to be very progressive and open-minded. I also like your blog. E

I've enjoyed reading this dialog and think it's reasonable and productive. So, I wanted to get on here just to tell you this. You've got a great blog and I like it that people here speak with civil tongues and sound like they're not just getting on to yell and be grouchy. Great blog!